A Deadly Disease That Strikes Coal Miners Has Returned in Australia
- Thousands of Queensland miners checked for black lung disease
- Compensation claims may boost insurance costs for companies
black lung. Source: The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
Source: The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy UnionThis article is for subscribers only.
Claustrophobia never bothered Keith Stoddart as he sheared coal from the wall of a long, narrow and dusty tunnel hundreds of meters underground in northeastern Australia. Now, racked by a progressive, deadly lung disease, the 68-year-old gets panicked by pangs of shortness of breath.
His illness had been absent since the mid 1980s in Australia, the world’s top coal-exporting country. At least, that’s what records showed until May 2015, when mine-veterans like Stoddart began presenting in doctors’ rooms with an irreversible scourge from a bygone era: black lung disease.